William H. Macy
I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him.Collection: Pet
Everyone hooks up with George Clooney. He's a genuinely cool guy. He's using his powers for good.Collection: Cool
We thought sex was free. Sex is not free. There's a price to be paid emotionally, physically, even legally. Sex isn't a casual thing. It's a huge thing.
I'll tell you this about the Oscars - they're real.
When Fargo came out, I hired a publicist for the first time in my life. I thought, if ever I was going to make it, that was then.
There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.
Yeah, I made it. It sneaks up on you. You're some schmuck and you wake up one day and you go, Good God, I'm the cheese.
Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood.
A favorite cast? Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and my wife.
I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.
Oh yeah, that's the Holy Grail, Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp, he's the real deal, isn't he? He doesn't get the girl, and he doesn't care.
Ninety percent of the preparation we do as actors is just jive. It doesn't do anything.
Stephen King writes a lot of things that are really charming and quirky, and that are more ironic than horror.
The Spirit Awards are great too, they'll say anything because they're not televised. Another great drinking night.
I'm really proud of the writing on Door to Door, and I think that's the Emmy that meant the most - the writing.
I have a tendency to say yes to a script or no to a script. Not yes based on a rewrite.
It started with the Godfather, this operatic violence. I don't know.
I got an agent. He said, what do you wanna do, and I said, I want an Oscar nomination. That's your job, that's what I'm paying you for. And I got it.
When I was in New York, I was making a living. We had a summer house and a car that I could put in a garage. That's something for a stage actor.
When I watch a film I get swept away. I don't really watch the camera.
We must admit that it is quite common that people do have affairs with their leading ladies and men.
If I like the story and it's well written, and it's a character I want to play and they'll pay me, then I decide to do it.
Directors work 10 times harder than anyone else. Get paid a quarter.
I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.
That red carpet has to be felt to be believed.
I think I've been in situations where they looked at me and just see some rich white guy - they don't see me at all.
I'm sure I have a process, but it mostly takes place in my dreams.
I'm not against watching myself, but I miss a lot of it. I've got two little kids who we don't let watch TV.
The only people who do plays in LA are people who can't get jobs in TV shows.
The bar raises as you go.
We all want to be 20 again and have that first sense of love.
I do them all for the money, I really do.
Shameless is a rough show, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s also beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
Emotions are the natural result of striving for something. Every single scene has two or more people in it, and nobody wants the same thing, so they are negotiating this one way or another. The result of that negotiation will bring out all kinds of emotional stuff in you.Collection: Emotional
I'm not much of a preparer. I think sometimes as an actor you need to go out and learn some skills, but in terms of preparation for understanding the character, it's all on the page, and if it's not on the page, you're in trouble.Collection: Character
You should know the lines, be prepared, get sleep, and have the script analyzed so you're ready to rock and roll.Collection: Sleep
It's hard to be depressed around a ukulele. You just pick it up and you're halfway home.Collection: Home
All that back-story stuff doesn't help. What you get paid for is to stand toe-to-toe with the other actor and get him to do your will.Collection: Stories
I think what all actors share is that, somewhere down in your solar plexus, there's this fear that you're not going to be able to come up with the goods, that this is the one movie where you're going to look like a fool, and they should have cast someone else. And you feel ugly, and you've got three chins, and you've gained too much weight, and you're losing your hair, and there are so many better actors who could do this. But if you've got chops, what you realize is that everybody feels that way, so just show up and do the job.Collection: Jobs
The emotions will take care of themselves. You don't have to prod them along. As a matter of fact, you get in trouble when you prod them along.Collection: Care
You have to do whatever you can to limit the things that could make you feel insecure.Collection: Insecure
I love metaphor the way some people love junk food.Collection: People
I've always felt that, no matter where you go, people are just people.Collection: People
Nothing else counts except what you want.Collection: Want
It sure is boring to be around people who are in character all the time. I always find it's closer to mental illness than acting excellence.Collection: Character
We always want to see people strive and see the human spirit triumph against adversity. That's what it's all about because that's what we're doing. We're trying to triumph in our lives.Collection: Adversity
It's hard on an actor when you have to do a scene 45 times and you know damn well that three of the angles a director is shooting will never make it into the movie.Collection: Directors
The roughest part is showing up. Once you throw yourself into the scene, it's just great fun to let it all go and not be self-conscious, and stop questioning whether you're sufficient.Collection: Fun
I really love hanging out on the set, and I love the life, and all of that. But I don't think I could stick with this profession if it weren't for those 15 minutes a day when I get to act. That's the part I love. For some strange reason, it's the time that I'm the least self-conscious in my whole life.Collection: Thinking
So much of the violence in the movies is b.s. violence: A guy in the middle of a large city with 14 people lying on the ground that he's just killed with his superhuman powers, and there's not a cop to be found. Not a siren to be heard. No price to be paid. That's not true, and I don't like that sort of stuff.Collection: Lying